Researcher Published by CQ Press, a division of Congressional Quarterly Inc. CQ www.cqresearcher.com American Indians Are they making meaningful progress at last?

inds of change are blowing through Indian Country, improving prospects for many of the nation’s 4.4 million Native Americans. The number of tribes managing their own affairsW has increased dramatically, and an urban Indian middle class is quietly taking root. The booming revenues of many Indian- owned casinos seem the ultimate proof that Indians are overcom- ing a history of mistreatment, poverty and exclusion. Yet most of the gambling houses don’t rake in stratospheric revenues. And despite statistical upticks in socioeconomic indicators, American Nicole Boswell, an American Indian high-school student in White Earth, Minn., dreams of being a Indians are still poorer, more illness-prone and less likely to be psychologist on her tribe’s reservation. employed than their fellow citizens. Meanwhile, tribal governments remain largely dependent on direct federal funding of basic services I — funding that Indian leaders and congressional supporters decry N THIS REPORT S as inadequate. But government officials say they are still providing THE ISSUES ...... 363 I essential services despite budget cuts BACKGROUND ...... 368 D CHRONOLOGY ...... 371 E CURRENT SITUATION ...... 374

CQ Researcher • April 28, 2006 • www.cqresearcher.com AT ISSUE ...... 377 Volume 16, Number 16 • Pages 361-384 OUTLOOK ...... 378 RECIPIENT OF SOCIETY OF PROFESSIONAL JOURNALISTS AWARD FOR BIBLIOGRAPHY ...... 382 EXCELLENCE AMERICAN BAR ASSOCIATION SILVER GAVEL AWARD THE NEXT STEP ...... 383 AMERICAN INDIANS CQ Researcher

April 28, 2006 THE ISSUES OUTLOOK Volume 16, Number 16

• Is the federal govern- Who Is an Indian? MANAGING EDITOR: Thomas J. Colin 363 ment neglecting Indians? 378 Most tribes define ancestry • Have casinos benefited by the “blood quantum.” ASSISTANT MANAGING EDITOR: Kathy Koch Indians? ASSOCIATE EDITOR: Kenneth Jost • Would money alone SIDEBARS AND GRAPHICS STAFF WRITERS: Marcia Clemmitt, Peter Katel, solve Indians’ problems? Pamela M. Prah ACKGROUND Conditions on Reservations CONTRIBUTING WRITERS: Rachel S. Cox, B 364 Improved Sarah Glazer, David Hosansky, Those with gaming did best. Patrick Marshall, Tom Price Conquered Homelands 368 DESIGN/PRODUCTION EDITOR: Olu B. Davis Efforts against Native Ameri- Casino Revenues Doubled cans began in the 1400s. 365 The number of casinos also ASSISTANT EDITOR: Melissa J. Hipolit increased. Forced Assimilation 370 The 19th-century policy Chronology broke up tribal lands. 371 Key events since 1830. Termination Budget Cuts Target Health A Division of 370 372 Clinics Congressional Quarterly Inc. The post-war policy took Indian-run urban facilities 1.6 million Indian acres. face elimination. SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT/PUBLISHER: John A. Jenkins Activism Disease Toll Higher DIRECTOR, LIBRARY PUBLISHING: Kathryn C. Suárez 370 The American Indian 373 Among Indians Movement asserted itself Indians die at higher rates DIRECTOR, EDITORIAL OPERATIONS: in the 1960s. than the U.S. population. Ann Davies CONGRESSIONAL QUARTERLY INC. Self-Determination Urban Indians: Invisible 376 CHAIRMAN: Paul C. Tash 373 A 1975 law gave tribes and Unheard Most non-reservation Indians VICE CHAIRMAN: Andrew P. Corty more autonomy. are scattered in towns and cities. PRESIDENT/EDITOR IN CHIEF: Robert W. Merry Copyright © 2006 CQ Press, a division of Congres- CURRENT SITUATION At Issue 377 sional Quarterly Inc. (CQ). CQ reserves all copyright Should tribes open casinos and other rights herein, unless previously specified Self-Government on newly acquired land? 374 Many Indians advocate in writing. No part of this publication may be re- more power for tribes. produced electronically or otherwise, without prior written permission. Unauthorized reproduction or FOR FURTHER RESEARCH transmission of CQ copyrighted material is a violation Limits on Gambling of federal law carrying civil fines of up to $100,000. 375 Off-reservation lands For More Information would be affected. 381 Organizations to contact. CQ Researcher (ISSN 1056-2036) is printed on acid- free paper. Published weekly, except March 24, July Trust Settlement Bibliography 7, July 14, Aug. 4, Aug. 11, Nov. 24, Dec. 22 and 382 Selected sources used. Dec. 29, by CQ Press, a division of Congressional 376 Suit alleges mismanage- Quarterly Inc. Annual full-service subscriptions for ment of Indian funds. The Next Step institutions start at $667. For pricing, call 1-800-834- 383 Additional articles. 9020, ext. 1906. To purchase a CQ Researcher re- Supreme Court Ruling 378 port in print or electronic format (PDF), visit A 2005 tax decision may 383 Citing the CQ Researcher www.cqpress.com or call 866-427-7737. Single reports have wide impact. Sample bibliography formats. start at $10. Bulk purchase discounts and electronic- rights licensing are also available. Periodicals post- age paid at Washington, D.C., and additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to CQ Researcher, 1255 22nd St., N.W., Suite 400, Washing- Cover: Nicole Boswell, an Indian high-school student in White Earth, Minn., dreams of being ton, DC 20037. a psychologist on her tribe’s reservation. (AP Photo/Minnesota Public Radio, Dan Gunderson)

362 CQ Researcher American Indians BY PETER KATEL

National statistics aren’t much better: THE ISSUES • Indian unemployment on t’s not a fancy gambling reservations nationwide is palace, like some Indian 49 percent — 10 times the I casinos, but the modest national rate. 3 operation run by the Win- • The on-reservation family nebago Tribe of Nebraska may poverty rate in 2000 was just help the 2,300-member 37 percent — four times tribe hit the economic jackpot. the national figure of 9 Using seed money from percent. 4 the casino, it has launched • Nearly one in five Indians 12 businesses, including a age 25 or older in tribes construction company and an without gambling opera- Internet news service. Pro- tions had less than a ninth- jected 2006 revenues: $150 grade education. But even million. members of tribes with “It would be absolutely gambling had a college dumb for us to think that graduation rate of only 16 gaming is the future,” says percent, about half the na- tribe member Lance Morgan, tional percentage. 5 the 37-year-old Harvard Law • Death rates from alco- School graduate who runs the holism and tuberculosis holding company for the among Native Americans dozen businesses. “Gaming are at least 650 percent is just a means to an end — higher than overall U.S. and it’s done wonders for rates. 6 our tribal economy.” • Indian youths commit sui- Indian casinos have re- cide at nearly triple the

vived a myth dating back to Getty Images/Mario Tama rate of young people in the early-20th-century Okla- Jerolyn Fink lives in grand style in the housing center general. 7 homa oil boom — that In- built by Connecticut’s Mohegan Tribe using profits from • Indians on reservations, es- dians are rolling in dough. 1 its successful Mohegan Sun casino. Thanks in part to pecially in the resource- booming casinos, many tribes are making progress, but While some of the 55 tribes American Indians still face daunting health and poor Upper Plains and that operate big casinos in- economic problems, and tribal leaders say West, are the nation’s deed are raking in big profits, federal aid remains inadequate. third-largest group of the 331 federally recognized methemphetamine users. 8 tribes in the lower 48 states, on the able to many people in this country, The immediate prognosis for the whole, endure soul-quenching poverty who would equate a situation such as nation’s 4.4 million Native Ameri- and despair. this to one found only in Third World cans is bleak, according to the Har- Arizona’s 1.8-million-acre San Carlos countries,” she said. Then, speaking vard Project on American Indian Apache Reservation is among the poor- of the drug-related death of one of Economic Development. “If U.S. and est. The rural, isolated community of her own grandsons, she had to choke on-reservation Indian per-capita in- about 13,000 people not only faces dev- back sobs. come were to continue to grow at astating unemployment but also a dead- “Our statistics are horrific,” says Lionel their 1990s’ rates,” it said, “it would ly methemphetamine epidemic, tribal R. Bordeaux, president of Sinte Gleska take half a century for the tribes to Chairwoman Kathleen W. Kitcheyan, University, on the Rosebud Sioux Reser- catch up.” 9 told the Senate Indian Affairs Commit- vation in South Dakota. “We’re at the Nonetheless, there has been for- tee in April. bottom rung of the ladder in all areas, ward movement in Indian Country, “We suffer from a poverty level of whether it’s education levels, economic though it is measured in modest steps. 69 percent, which must be unimagin- achievement or political status.” 2 Among the marks of recent progress:

Available online: www.cqresearcher.com April 28, 2006 363 AMERICAN INDIANS

Supreme Court decision that is a Conditions on Reservations Improved bedrock of Indian law, tribes are “do- 13 Socioeconomic conditions improved more on reservations with mestic dependent nations.” gambling than on those without gaming during the 1990s, although The blend of autonomy and de- pendence grows out of the Indians’ non-gaming reservations also improved substantially, especially reliance on Washington for sheer sur- compared to the U.S. population. Some experts attribute the progress vival, says Robert A. Williams Jr., a among non-gaming tribes to an increase in self-governance on law professor at the University of Ari- many reservations. zona and a member of North Caroli- na’s Lumbee Tribe. “Indians insisted Socioeconomic Changes on Reservations, 1990-2000* in their treaties that the Great White (shown as a percentage or percentage points) Father protect us from these racial ma- niacs in the states — where racial dis- Non-Gaming Gaming U.S. crimination was most developed — Real per-capita income +21.0% +36.0% +11.0% and guarantee us a right to education, Median household income +14.0% +35.0% +4.0% a right to water, a territorial base, a Family poverty -6.9 -11.8 -0.8 homeland,” he says. “Tribes sold an awful lot of land in return for a trust Child poverty -8.1 -11.6 -1.7 relationship to keep the tribes going.” Deep poverty -1.4 -3.4 -0.4 Today, the practical meaning of the Public assistance +0.7 -1.6 +0.3 relationship with Washington is that Unemployment -1.8 -4.8 -0.5 American Indians on reservations, and Labor force participation -1.6 +1.6 -1.3 to some extent those elsewhere, de- Overcrowded homes -1.3 -0.1 +1.1 pend entirely or partly on federal funding for health, education and Homes lacking complete plumbing -4.6 -3.3 -0.1 other needs. Tribes with casinos and Homes lacking complete kitchen +1.3 -0.6 +0.2 other businesses lessen their reliance College graduates +1.7 +2.6 +4.2 on federal dollars. High school or equivalency only -0.3 +1.8 -1.4 Unlike other local governments, tribes Less than 9th-grade education -5.5 -6.3 -2.8 don’t have a tax base whose revenues they share with state governments. * The reservation population of the Navajo Nation, which did not have gambling in Federal spending on Indian programs the 1990s, was not included because it is so large (175,000 in 2000) that it tends to of all kinds nationwide currently pull down Indian averages when it is included. amounts to about $11 billion, James Source: Jonathan B. Taylor and Joseph P. Kalt, “Cabazon, The Indian Gaming Cason, associate deputy secretary of the Regulatory Act, and the Socioeconomic Consequences of American Indian Interior, told the Senate Indian Affairs Governmental Gaming: A Ten-Year Review, American Indians on Reservations: A Committee in February. Databook of Socioeconomic Change Between the 1990 and 2000 Censuses,” But the abysmal conditions under Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development, January 2005 which many American Indians live make it all too clear that isn’t enough, • Per-capita income rose 20 percent (but the Indian rate is still more Indians say. “This is always a discus- on reservations, to $7,942, (and 36 than double the 17 percent aver- sion at our tribal leaders’ meetings,” percent in tribes with casinos, to age nationwide). 12 says Cecilia Fire Thunder, president of $9,771), in contrast to an 11 per- More than two centuries of court the Oglala Sioux Tribe in Pine Ridge, cent overall U.S. growth rate. 10 decisions, treaties and laws have cre- S.D. “The biggest job that tribal leaders • Unemployment has dropped by ated a complicated system of coexis- have is to see that the government up to 5 percent on reservations tence between tribes and the rest of lives up to its responsibilities to our and in other predominantly Indi- the country. On one level, tribes are people. It’s a battle that never ends.” an areas. 11 sovereign entities that enjoy a gov- Indeed, a decades-old class-action • Child poverty in non-gaming tribes ernment-to-government relationship suit alleges systematic mismanagement dropped from 55 percent of the with Washington. But the sovereignty of billions of dollars in Indian-owned child population to 44 percent is qualified. In the words of an 1831 assets by the Interior Department —

364 CQ Researcher a case that has prompted withering The spread of casinos has prompt- criticism of the department by the judge Revenues From Casinos ed some cities and counties, along (see p. 375). Almost Doubled with citizens’ groups and even some Government officials insist that, de- casino-operating tribes, to resist casino- spite orders to cut spending, they’ve Revenue from Indian gaming expansion plans. been able to keep providing essen- operations nearly doubled to The opposition to expansion is an- tial services. Charles Grim, director of $19.4 billion from 2000-2004. other reason tribal entrepreneur Mor- the Indian Health Service, told the In- The number of Indian casinos gan doesn’t think gaming is a good dian Affairs Committee, “In a deficit- increased from 311 to 367 long-range bet for Indians’ future. His reduction year, it’s a very strong bud- during the period. vision involves full tribal control of get and one that does keep pace with the Indians’ main asset — their land. inflationary and population-growth Indian Gaming Revenues He argues for ending the “trust sta- increases.” (2000-2004) tus” under which tribes can’t buy or In any event, from the tribes’ point Revenue sell reservation property — a relic of (in $ billions) of view, they lack the political mus- 19th-century protection against rapa- $20 $19.4 cle to force major increases. “The big $16.8 cious state governments. problem is the Indians are about 1 $14.7 Indian Country needs a better busi- 15 percent of the national population,” $12.8 ness climate, Morgan says, and the says Joseph Kalt, co-director of the $10.9 availability of land as collateral for in- Harvard Project. “The voice is so tiny.” 10 vestments would be a big step in that Faced with that grim political real- direction. “America has a wonderful ity, Indians are trying to make better 5 economic system, probably the best use of scarce federal dollars through in the world, but the reservation tends a federally sponsored “self-governance” to be an economic black hole.” 0 movement. Leaders of the movement 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 As Indians seek to improve their say tribes can deliver higher-quality lives, here are some of the issues services more efficiently when they Source: Indian Gaming Commission being debated: control their own budgets. Tradition- ally, federal agencies operate pro- The gambling houses operate under Is the federal government neglect- grams on reservations, such as law the 1988 Indian Gaming Regulatory Act ing Native Americans? enforcement or medical services. (IGRA), which was made possible by There is wide agreement that the But since the 1990s, dozens of tribes a U.S. Supreme Court ruling uphold- federal government bears overwhelm- have stepped up control of their own ing tribes’ rights to govern their own ing responsibility for Indians’ welfare, affairs both by building their own busi- activities. 15 A handful of tribes are but U.S. and tribal officials disagree nesses and by signing self-governance doing so well that $80 million from six over the adequacy of the aid Indians “compacts” with the federal government. tribes in 2000-2003 helped fuel the scan- receive. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., chair- Compacts provide tribes with large dal surrounding one-time Washington man of the Senate Indian Affairs Com- chunks of money, or block grants, rather super-lobbyist Jack Abramoff, whose mittee, and Vice Chairman Byron L. than individual grants for each service. clients were among the most success- Dorgan, D-N.D., have been leading the Then, with minimal federal oversight, ful casino tribes. 16 fight for more aid to Indians. “We have the tribes develop their own budgets If the Abramoff scandal contributed a full-blown crisis . . . particularly deal- and run all or most services. to the notion of widespread Indian wealth, ing with children and elderly, with re- The self-governance trend gathered one reason may be the misimpression spect to housing, education and health steam during the same time that In- that tribes don’t pay taxes on their gam- care,” Dorgan told the committee on dian-owned casinos began booming. bling earnings. In fact, under the IGRA, Feb. 14. He characterized administra- For many tribes, the gambling busi- federal, state and local governments took tion proposals as nothing more than ness provided a revenue stream that in $6.3 billion in gambling-generated tax “nibbling around the edges on these didn’t flow from Washington. revenues in 2004, with 67 percent going issues . . . making a few adjustments According to economist Alan Meister, to the federal government. In addition, here or there.’ ” 228 tribes in 30 states operated 367 high- tribes paid out some $889 million in 2004 Administration officials respond stakes bingo halls or casinos in 2004, to state and local governments in order that given the severe federal deficit, earning an estimated $19.6 billion. 14 to get gambling operations approved. 17 they are focusing on protecting vital

Available online: www.cqresearcher.com April 28, 2006 365 AMERICAN INDIANS programs. “As we Ryan Wilson, president went through and pri- of the National Indian oritized our budget, Education Association, we basically looked citing “crumbling build- at all of the programs ings and outdated struc- that were secondary tures with lead in the and tertiary programs, pipes and mold on the and they were the walls.” 19 first ones on the Cason told the Indi- block to give trade- an Affairs Committee the offs for our core pro- administration is propos- grams in maintaining ing a $49 million cut, the integrity of those,” from $157.4 million to Interior’s Cason told $108.1 million, in school the committee. construction and repair For Indians on iso- in 2007. He also said that lated reservations, only 10 of 37 dilapidat- says Bordeaux of the ed schools funded for Rosebud Sioux, replacement by 2006 there’s little alterna- Lauer AP Photo/William have been completed, Controversial Whiteclay, Neb., sells millions of cans of beer annually to tive to federal money. residents of the nearby Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. with another 19 sched- He compares tribes’ Alcohol abuse and unemployment continue to plague uled to finish in 2007. present circumstances the American Indian community. Likewise, he said the de- to those after the partment is also behind buffalo had been killed off, and an of other Americans have failed in part on 45 school improvement projects. Army general told the Indians to eat because of a lack of sustained funding. McCain questioned whether BIA beef, which made them sick. “The The failure manifests itself in massive schools and public schools with large general told them, ‘Either that, or you and escalating unmet needs.” 18 Indian enrollments would be able to eat the grass on which you stand.’” “Nobody in this government dis- meet the requirements set by the na- But David B. Vickers, president of putes the report, in general,” says tional No Child Left Behind Law. 20 Upstate Citizens for Equality, in Union Ragsdale, a Cherokee. “Some of our Yes, replied Darla Marburger, deputy Springs, N.Y., which opposes Indian tribal communities are in real critical assistant secretary of Education for land claims and casino applications, ar- shape, and others are prospering.” policy. “For the first time, we’ll be gues that accusations of federal neglect The commission found, for example, providing money to . . . take a look are inaccurate and skirt the real prob- that in 2003 the Indian Health Service at how students are achieving in ways lem. The central issue is that the con- appropriation amounted to $2,533 per that they can tailor their programs to stitutional system is based on individ- capita — below even the $3,803 per better meet the needs of students.” ual rights, not tribal rights, he says. capita appropriated for federal prisoners. Overall, the Department of Education “Indians are major recipients of wel- Concern over funding for Indian pro- would spend about $1 billion on In- fare now. They’re eligible. They don’t grams in 2007 centers largely on health dian education under the administra- need a tribe or leader; all they have and education. Although 90 percent of tion’s proposed budget for 2007, or to do is apply like anybody else.” Indian students attend state-operated $6 million less than in 2006. Pat Ragsdale, director of the Bureau public schools, their schools get fed- McCain and Dorgan are also among of Indian Affairs (BIA), acknowledges eral aid because tribes don’t pay prop- those concerned about administration that Dorgan’s and McCain’s criticisms erty taxes, which typically fund public plans to eliminate the Indian Health echo a 2003 U.S. Commission on Civil schools. The remaining 10 percent of Service’s $32.7 million urban program, Rights report, which also called under- Indian students attend schools operat- which this year made medical and funding of Indian aid a crisis. “The gov- ed by the BIA or by tribes themselves counseling services available to some ernment is failing to live up to its trust under BIA contracts. 430,000 off-reservation Indians at 41 responsibility to Native peoples,” the “There is not a congressman or sen- medical facilities in cities around the commission concluded. “Efforts to bring ator who would send his own children nation. (See Sidebar, p. 372.) The ad- Native Americans up to the standards or grandchildren to our schools,” said ministration argues that the services were

366 CQ Researcher available through other programs, but Tribes with casinos near big pop- Some non-Indian communities also McCain and Dorgan noted that “no ulation centers are flourishing. The oppose casino expansion. “We firmly evaluation or evidence has been pro- Coushatta Tribe’s casino near Lake believe a large, generally unregulated vided to support this contention.” 21 Charles, La., generates $300 million a casino will fundamentally change the Indian Health Service spokesman year, enough to provide about $40,000 character of our community forever,” Thomas Sweeney, a member of the to every member. 23 And the fabled said Liz Thomas, a member of Tax Citizen Potawatomi Nation of Okla- Foxwoods Resort Casino south of Nor- Payers of Michigan Against Casinos, homa, says only 72,703 Indians used wich, Conn., operated by the Mashan- which opposes a casino planned by urban health centers in 2004 and that tucket Pequot Tribe, together with the Pokagon Band of Potawotami In- expansion of another federal program Connecticut’s other big casino, the Mo- dians Tribe in the Lake Michigan town would pick up the slack. 22 hegan Tribe’s Mohegan Sun, grossed of New Buffalo, where Taylor and her In Seattle, elimination of the urban $2.2 billion just from gambling in husband operate a small resort. program would cut $4 million from 2004. 24 “People are OK with Donald Trump the city’s Indian Health Board budget, There are only about 830 Coushattas, making millions of dollars individually,” says Executive Director Ralph Forquera. so their benefits also include free health says Joseph Podlasek, executive direc- “Why pick on a $33 million appro- care, education and favorable terms on tor of the American Indian Center of priation?” he asks. In his skeptical home purchases. 25 The once pover- Chicago, “but if a race of people is try- view, the proposal reflects another “un- ty-stricken Mashantuckets have creat- ing to become self-sufficient, now that’s spoken” termination program. You take ed Connecticut’s most extensive wel- not respectable.” a sub-population — urban Indians — fare-to-work program, open to both Nevertheless, some American Indi- and eliminate funding, then [you tar- tribe members and non-members. In ans have mixed feelings about the get] tribes under 1,000 members, and 1997-2000, the program helped 150 casino route to economic development. there are a lot of them. Little by lit- welfare recipients find jobs. 26 “I don’t think anyone would have tle, you pick apart the system.” Most tribes don’t enjoy success on picked casinos” for that purpose, says The IHS’s Grim told the Senate that scale. Among the nation’s 367 In- the University of Arizona’s Williams. committee on Feb. 14 the cuts were dian gambling operations, only 15 “Am I ambivalent about it? Absolutely. designed to protect funding that “can grossed $250 million or more in 2004 But I’m not ambivalent about a new be used most effectively to improve (another 40 earned $100 million to fire station, or Kevlar vests for tribal the health status of American Indian $250 million); 94 earned less than $3 police fighting meth gangs.” and Alaskan Native people.” million and 57 earned $3 million to “There’s no question that some of $10 million. 27 the money has been used for worth- Have casinos benefited Indians? “We have a small casino that pro- while purposes,” concedes Guy Clark, Over the past two decades, Indian vides close to $3 million to the tribal a Corrales, N.M., dentist who chairs casinos have become powerful eco- nation as a whole,” says Bordeaux, on the National Coalition Against Legal- nomic engines for many tribal the Rosebud Sioux Reservation. The ized Gambling. But, he adds, “If you economies. But the enthusiasm for casi- revenue has been channeled into the do a cost-benefit analysis, the cost is nos is not unanimous. tribe’s Head Start program, an emer- much greater than the benefit.” Restau- “If you’re looking at casinos in terms gency home-repair fund and other rants and other businesses, for exam- of how they’ve actually raised the sta- projects. W. Ron Allen, chairman of ple, lose customers who often gam- tus of Indian people, they’ve been an the Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe in Se- ble away their extra money. abysmal failure,” says Ted Jojola, a pro- quim, Wash., says his tribe’s small casi- Even some Indian leaders whose fessor of planning at the University of no has raised living standards so much tribes profit from casinos raise caution New Mexico and a member of Isleta that some two-dozen students a year flags, especially about per-capita pay- Pueblo, near Albuquerque. “But in terms go to college, instead of one or two. ments. For Nebraska’s Winnebagos, of augmenting the original federal trust- Efforts to open additional casinos payments amount to just a few hun- responsibility areas — education, health, are creating conflicts between tribes dred dollars, says CEO Morgan. What tribal government — they’ve been a that operate competing casinos, as bothers him are dividends “that are spectacular success. Successful gaming well as with some of their non-Indian just big enough that you don’t have tribes have ploughed the money either neighbors. Convicted lobbyist Abramoff, to work or get educated — say, into diversifying their economies or for example, was paid millions of dol- $20,000 to $40,000.” they’ve augmented funds that would lars by tribes seeking to block other But there’s no denying the impact have come to them anyway.” tribal casinos. 28 casinos can have. At a January public

Available online: www.cqresearcher.com April 28, 2006 367 AMERICAN INDIANS hearing on the Oneida Indian Nation’s to increase or restore small but vital of Arizona State University’s Center attempt to put 17,000 acres of upstate grants for basic health, education and for Indian Education. “Educators need New York land into tax-free “trust” sta- welfare services. to tie the purposes of schooling to tus, hundreds of the 4,500 employees “In our ICWA [Indian Child Welfare the broad-based purposes of society. of the tribe’s Turning Stone Resort and Act] program, currently we have a We’re more successful when we tie Casino, near Utica, showed up in sup- budget of $79,000 a year,” said Harold education to the meaning of life.” port. “When I was a kid, people worked Frazier, chairman of the Cheyenne River The University of Arizona’s Williams for General Motors, General Electric, Car- Sioux, in South Dakota. “We receive says a tribe’s success and failure may rier and Oneida Ltd.,” said casino Human over 1,300 requests for assistance an- be tied more to the way its govern- Resources Director Mark Mancini. “Today, nually from 11 states and eight coun- ment is organized than to how much people work for the Oneida Indian Na- ties in South Dakota. We cannot give funding it gets. tion and their enterprises.” 29 the type of attention to these requests Williams says the first priority of For tribes that can’t build indepen- that they deserve. Therefore, we are tribes still using old-style constitutions dent economies any other way, casinos requesting $558,000.” should be reorganization, because they are appealing. The 225,000-member To university President Bordeaux, feature a weak executive elected by a Navajo Nation, the biggest U.S. tribe, federal funding is vital because his tribal council. “That’s what the BIA was twice rejected gaming before finally desolate reservation has few other op- used to,” he explains. “It could play approving it in 2004. 30 “We need that tions for economic survival. “What’s off factions and families, and the eco- infusion of jobs and revenue, and peo- missing is money,” he says. nomic system would be based on pa- ple realize that,” said Duane Yazzie, Money is crucial to improving In- tronage and taking care of your own president of the Navajos’ Shiprock, dians’ health, says Dr. Joycelyn family.” Under such a system, he adds, N.M., chapter. 31 Dorscher, director of the Center of “there’s not going to be any long-term But the Navajos face stiff competition American Indian and Minority Health strategic planning going on.” 33 from dozens of casinos already in op- at the University of Minnesota-Duluth. Yet other needs exist as well, says eration near the vast Navajo reservation, Especially costly are programs to com- the American Indian Center’s Podlasek. which spreads across parts of Arizona, bat diabetes and other chronic dis- “It’s so difficult for us to find a place New Mexico and Utah and is larger than eases, says Dorscher, a Chippewa. to do a traditional ceremony,” he says. the state of West Virginia. While health programs have to be “We had a traditional healer in town carefully designed to fit Indian cultur- last month, and he wanted to build a Would money alone solve Ameri- al patterns, she says, “Everything comes sweat lodge. We actually had to go to can Indians’ problems? down to time or money in the grand Indiana. Doing it in the city wasn’t No one in Indian Country (or on scheme of things.” even an option.” Capitol Hill) denies the importance of But with funding from Washington federal funding to American Indians’ never certain from year to year, says future, but some Indians say it isn’t the Harvard Project’s Kalt, “The key the only answer. to economic development has not been BACKGROUND “We are largely on our own because federal funding” but rather “tribes’ abil- of limited financial assistance from the ity to run their own affairs.” federal government,” said Joseph A. For tribes without self-government Garcia, president of the National Con- compacts, growing demands for ser- Conquered Homelands gress of American Indians, in his recent vices and shrinking funding from Wash- “State of Indian Nations” speech. 32 ington make keeping the dollars flow- elations between Indian and non- Fifty-two tribal officials and Indian ing the highest priority. “We’re always R Indian civilizations in the Americ- program directors expressed similar afraid of more cutbacks,” says Oglala as began with the Spanish Conquista- sentiments in March before the House Sioux President Fire Thunder. dors’ explorations of the 1500s, followed Appropriations Subcommittee on the But an Indian education leader by the French and British. By turns the Interior. Pleading their case before with decades of federal budgetary ne- three powers alternated policies of en- lawmakers who routinely consider gotiations acknowledges that problems slavement, peaceful coexistence and all- billion-dollar weapons systems and go beyond funding shortfalls. “If you out warfare against the Indians. 34 other big projects, the tribal leaders ask students why they dropped out, By 1830, with the Europeans largely sounded like small-town county com- they say, ‘I don’t see a future for my- gone, white settlers moved westward missioners as they urged lawmakers self,’ ” says David Beaulieu, director into Georgia, Mississippi and Alabama.

368 CQ Researcher Unwilling to share the cultural survival under rich frontier land, they U.S. law.” 37 pushed the Indians Along with the Chero- out. President Andrew kee case, the other two Jackson backed the opinions that make up the strategy, and Congress so-called Marshall Trilogy enacted it into the In- are Johnson v. M’Intosh dian Removal Act of (also known as Johnson 1830, which called for v. McIntosh), and Worces- moving the region’s ter v. State of Georgia. 38 five big tribes into the In Johnson, Marshall Oklahoma Territory. wrote that the European If the law didn’t empires that “discovered” make clear where In- America became its own- dians stood with the ers and had “an exclu- government, the treat- sive right to extinguish ment of Mississippi’s the Indian title of occu- Choctaws provided pancy, either by purchase chilling evidence. or by conquest. The tribes Under a separate of Indians inhabiting this treaty, Choctaws who country were fierce sav- refused to head for ages. . . . To leave them Oklahoma could re- in possession of their main at home, be- country was to leave the come citizens and re- country a wilderness.” 39 ceive land. In practice, However, Marshall none of that was al- used the 1832 Worcester lowed, and Indians opinion to define the lim- who stayed in Mis- its of state authority over sissippi lived margin- Indian tribes, holding that National Indian Gaming Association al existences. A National Indian Gaming Association advertisement touts the benefits of the newcomers couldn’t Georgia simplified tribal gaming operations to American Indian communities. Some 228 simply eject Indians. the claiming of Chero- tribes in 30 states operated 367 high-stakes bingo halls or casinos in 2004. “The Cherokee nation kee lands by effec- . . . is a distinct commu- tively ending Cherokee self-rule. The so- In concluding that the court couldn’t nity occupying its own territory . . . in called “Georgia Guard” reinforced the stop Georgia’s actions, Marshall defined which the laws of Georgia can have point by beating and jailing Indians. the relationship between Indians and the no force,” Marshall wrote. Georgia’s con- Jackson encouraged Georgia’s actions, U.S. government. While Marshall wrote viction and sentencing of a missionary and when Indians protested, he said he that Indians didn’t constitute a foreign for not swearing allegiance to the state couldn’t interfere. The lawsuit filed by state, he noted that they owned the land “interferes forcibly with the relations es- the Cherokees eventually reached the they occupied until they made a “vol- tablished between the United States and Supreme Court. untary cession.” Marshall concluded the the Cherokee nation.” 40 That is, the Chief Justice John Marshall’s 1831 various tribes were “domestic dependent federal government — not states — majority opinion, Cherokee Nation v. nations.” In practical terms, “Their rela- held the reins of power over tribes. Georgia, would cast a long shadow tions to the United States resembles that According to legend, Jackson re- over Indians’ rights, along with two of a ward to his guardian.” 36 marked: “John Marshall has made his other decisions, issued in 1823 and Having rejected the Cherokees’ ar- decision — now let him enforce it.” 1832. “Almost all Indian policy is the gument, the University of Arizona’s Between Jackson’s disregard of the progeny of the conflicting views of Williams writes, the court “provided Supreme Court and white settlers’ later Jackson and Marshall,” wrote W. Dale no effective judicial remedy for Indian manipulation of the legal system to Mason, a political scientist at the Uni- tribes to protect their basic human vacate Indian lands, the end result was versity of New Mexico. 35 rights to property, self-government, and the dispossession of Indian lands.

Available online: www.cqresearcher.com April 28, 2006 369 AMERICAN INDIANS

long-settled Hopis, who resisted at- in 1953, a House Concurrent Resolution Forced Assimilation tempts to break up their territory. The declared Congress’ policy to be ending vast Navajo Nation in Arizona, Utah Indians’ “status as wards of the United he expulsions of the Native Amer- and New Mexico was also left intact. States, and to grant them all of the rights T icans continued in the Western ter- While widely reviled, the “forced as- and privileges pertaining to American cit- ritories — especially after the Civil War. similation” policy left a benign legacy for izenship.” A separate law granted state “I instructed Captain Barry, if possible the affected Indians: the grant of citi- jurisdiction over Indian reservations in to exterminate the whole village,” Lt. zenship. Beyond that, the era’s Indians five Midwestern and Western states and Col. George Green wrote of his partic- were restricted to unproductive lands, extended the same authority to other ipation in an 1869 campaign against the and with little means of support many states that wanted to claim it. 43 White Mountain Apaches in Arizona and fell prey to alcoholism and disease. The following year, Congress “termi- New Mexico. “There seems to be no The bleak period ended with Pres- nated” formal recognition and territorial settled policy, but a general policy to ident Franklin D. Roosevelt. In his first sovereignty of six tribes. Four years later, kill them wherever found.” 41 term he appointed a defender of In- after public opposition began building Some military men and civilians dian culture, John Collier, as commis- (spurred in part by religious organiza- didn’t go along. But whether by brute sioner of Indian affairs. Collier pushed tions), Congress abandoned termination. force or by persuasion, Indians were for the Indian Reorganization Act of In the meantime, however, Indians had pushed off lands that non-Indians want- 1934, which ended the allotment pro- lost 1.6 million acres. ed. One strategy was to settle the In- gram, financed purchases of new In- At the same time, though, the feder- dians on reservations guarded by mil- dian lands and authorized the organi- al government maintained an associated itary posts. The strategy grew into a zation of tribal governments that policy — relocation. The BIA persuad- general policy for segregating Indians enjoyed control over revenues. ed Indians to move to cities — Chica- on these remote tracts. go, Denver and Los Angeles were the Even after the Indians were herded main destinations — and opened job- onto lands that no one else wanted, Termination placement and housing-aid programs. The the government didn’t respect reserva- BIA placed Indians far from their reser- tion boundaries. They were reconfig- fter World War II, a new, anti- vations to keep them from returning. By ured as soon as non-Indians saw some- A Indian mood swept Washington, 1970, the BIA estimated that 40 percent thing valuable, such as mineral wealth. partly in response to pressure from states of all Indians lived in cities, of which The strategy of elastic reservation where non-Indians eyed Indian land. one-third had been relocated by the bu- boundaries led to the belief — or ra- Collier resigned in 1945 after years reau; the rest moved on their own. 44 tionalization — that reservations served of conflict over what critics called his no useful purposes for Indians them- antagonism to missionaries proselytiz- selves. That doctrine led to a policy en- ing among the Indians and his sym- Activism shrined in an 1887 law to convert reser- pathies toward the tribes. The 1950 vations to individual landholdings. appointment of Dillon S. Myer — fresh tarting in the late 1960s, the winds Well-meaning advocates of the plan saw from supervising the wartime intern- S of change blowing through Amer- it as a way to inculcate notions of pri- ment of Japanese-Americans — clear- ican society were felt as deeply in In- vate property and Euro-American cul- ly reflected the new attitude. Myer dian Country as anywhere. Two books ture in general. showed little interest in what Indians played a crucial role. In 1969, Vine All tribal land was to be divided into themselves thought of the new policy Deloria Jr., member of a renowned 160-acre allotments, one for each Indi- of shrinking tribal land holdings. “I re- family of Indian intellectuals from Ok- an household. The parcels wouldn’t be- alize that it will not be possible always lahoma, published his landmark his- come individual property, though, for to obtain Indian cooperation. . . . We tory, Custer Died For Your Sins, which 25 years. must proceed, even though [this] may portrayed American history from the Indian consent wasn’t required. In be lacking.” 42 Indians’ viewpoint. The following some cases, government agents tried Congress hadn’t authorized a sweep- year, Dee Brown’s Bury My Heart at persuading Indians to join in; in oth- ing repeal of earlier policy. But the in- Wounded Knee described the settling ers, the divvying-up proceeded even troduction of dozens of bills in the late of the West also from an Indian point with many Indians opposed. In Ari- 1940s to sell Indian land or liquidate of view. The books astonished many zona, however, the government backed some reservation holdings entirely showed non-Indians. Among young Indians, off from breaking up the lands of the which way the winds were blowing. And Continued on p. 373

370 CQ Researcher Chronology

June 10, 1996 1800s United States 1960s-1980s Elouise Cobell, a member of the expands westward, pushing In- In the radical spirit of the era, Blackfeet Tribe in Montana, dians off most of their original Native Americans demand re- charges Interior Department mis- lands, sometimes creating new spect for their traditions and management of Indian trust funds reservations for them. an end to discrimination; feder- cheated Indians out of billions of al government concedes more dollars. The case is still pending. 1830 power to tribal governments, President Andrew Jackson signs the allows gambling on tribal lands. Nov. 3, 1998 Indian Removal Act, forcing the California voters uphold tribes’ rights Cherokees to move from Georgia 1969 to run casinos; state Supreme Court to Oklahoma. American Indian Movement (AIM) later invalidates the provision, but it seizes Alcatraz Island in San Fran- is revived by a 1999 compact be- 1832 cisco Bay to dramatize claims of tween the tribes and the state. Supreme Court issues the last of injustice. three decisions defining Indians’ legal • status as wards of the government. July 7, 1970 President Richard M. Nixon vows 1871 support for Indian self-government. 2000s Indian advo- Congress makes its treaties with cates decry low funding levels, tribes easier to alter, enabling non- Feb. 27, 1973 and sovereignty battles contin- Indians to take Indian lands when AIM members occupy the town of ue; lobbying scandal spotlights natural resources are discovered. Wounded Knee on the Pine Ridge, Indian gambling profits. S.D., Sioux Reservation, for two Dec. 29, 1890 months; two Indians die and an 2000 U.S. soldiers massacre at least 150 FBI agent is wounded. Tribal Self-Governance Demonstra- Plains Indians, mostly women and tion Project becomes permanent. children, at Wounded Knee, S.D. 1988 Indian Gaming Regulatory Act allows 2003 • tribes to operate casinos under U.S. Commission on Civil Rights agreements with states. calls underfunding for Indians a crisis, saying federal government 1900-1950s • spends less for Indian health care Congress and the executive than for any other group, includ- branch undertake major shifts in ing prison inmates. Indian policy, first strengthening 1990s Indian-owned tribal governments then trying to casinos boom; tribal govern- Feb. 22, 2004 force cultural assimilation. ments push to expand self-rule Washington Post reports on Wash- and reduce Bureau of Indian ington lobbyist Jack Abramoff’s 1924 Affairs (BIA) supervision. deals with casino tribes. Indians are granted U.S. citizenship. 1994 March 29, 2005 1934 President Bill Clinton signs law mak- U.S. Supreme Court blocks tax Indian Reorganization Act authorizes ing experimental self-governance exemptions for Oneida Nation of expansion of reservations and compacts permanent. New York on newly purchased strengthening of tribal governments. land simply because it once March 27, 1996 owned the property. 1953 U.S. Supreme Court rules states Congress endorses full assimilation can’t be forced to negotiate casino April 5, 2006 of Indians into American society, compacts, thus encouraging tribes Tribal and BIA officials testify in including “relocation” from reser- to make revenue-sharing deals with Congress that methamphetamine vations to cities. states as the price of approval. addiction is ravaging reservations.

Available online: www.cqresearcher.com April 28, 2006 371 AMERICAN INDIANS

Budget Cuts Target Health Clinics hen Lita Pepion, a health consultant and a mem- Wichita, Kan., agrees. She attributes Indians’ high rates of mental ber of the Blackfeet Nation, learned that her 22- health and alcohol/substance abuse to their long history of gov- W year-old-niece had been struggling with heroin abuse, ernment maltreatment. Many Indian children in the 19th and early she urged her to seek treatment at the local Urban Indian Clin- 20th centuries, she points out, were taken from their parents and ic in Billings, Mont. sent to government boarding schools where speaking native lan- But the young woman had so much trouble getting an ap- guages was prohibited. “Taking away the culture and language pointment that she gave up. Only recently, says Pepion, did years ago,” says Schwartz, as well as the government’s role in she overcome her addiction on her own. “taking their children and sterilizing their women” in the 1970s, The clinic is one of 34 federally funded, Indian-controlled clin- all contributed to Indians’ behavioral health issues. ics that contract with the Indian Health Service (IHS) to serve Keeler also believes Indians’ low incomes cause their unhealthy urban Indians. But President Bush’s 2007 budget would kill the lifestyles. Many eat high-fat, high-starch foods because they are $33-million program, eliminating cheaper, Pepion says. Growing up most of the clinics’ funding. on a reservation, she recalls, “We Indians in cities will still be didn’t eat a lot of vegetables be- able to get health care through cause we couldn’t afford them.” several providers, including the Opponents of the funding cuts federal Health Centers program, for urban Indian health centers also says Office of Management and cite a recent letter to President Bush Budget spokesman Richard from Daniel R. Hawkins Jr., vice Walker. The proposed budget president for federal, state and local government for the National Associ- would increase funding for the Salt Lake Tribune centers by nearly $2 billion, ation of Community Health Centers. IHS Director Charles W. Grim He said the urban Indian clinics and told the Senate Indian Affairs community health centers are com-

1 AP Photo/ Committee on Feb. 14, 2006. Native Americans in downtown Salt Lake City, Utah, plementary, not duplicative. But Joycelyn Dorscher, presi- demonstrate on April 21, 2006, against the elimination While Pepion does not believe dent of the Association of Amer- of funding for Urban Indian Health Clinics. funding should be cut entirely, she ican Indian Physicians, says the concedes that alternative health-care IHS clinics do a great job and that, “It’s very important that peo- services are often “better equipped than the urban Indian clin- ple from diverse backgrounds have physicians like themselves.” ics.” And if American Indians want to assimilate into the larger Others, however, including Pepion, say the clinics are poor- society, they can’t have everything culturally separate, she adds. ly managed and lack direction. Ralph Forquera, director of the “The only way that I was able to assimilate into an urban soci- Seattle-based Urban Indian Health Institute, says that while the ety was to make myself do those things that were uncomfortable clinics “have made great strides medically, a lack of resources for me,” she says. has resulted in services from unqualified professionals.” In ad- But Schwartz believes a great benefit of the urban clinics are dition, he says, “we have not been as successful in dealing their Indian employees, “who are culturally competent and sensi- with lifestyle changes and mental health problems.” tive and incorporate Native American-specific cultural ideas.” Be- Many Indian health experts oppose the cuts because Indians cause of their history of cultural abuse, it takes a long time for Na- in both urban areas and on reservations have more health prob- tive Americans to trust non-Indian health providers, says Schwartz. lems than the general population, including 126 percent more “They’re not just going to go to a health center down the road.” chronic liver disease and cirrhosis, 54 percent more diabetes and Dorscher and Schwartz also say the budget cuts could lead 178 percent more alcohol-related deaths. 2 to more urban Indians ending up in costly emergency rooms Indian health specialists blame the Indians’ higher disease because of their reluctance to trust the community health cen- rates on history, lifestyle and genetics — not just on poverty. ters. “Ultimately, it would become more expensive to cut the “You don’t see exactly the same things happening to other poor prevention and primary care programs than it would be to minority groups,” says Dorscher, a North Dakota Chippewa, so maintain them,” Dorscher says. “there’s something different” going on among Indians. — Melissa J. Hipolit In the view of Donna Keeler, executive director of the South Dakota Urban Indian Health program and an Eastern Shoshone, 1 Prepared testimony of Director of Indian Health Service Dr. Charles W. historical trauma affects the physical wellness of patients in her Grim before the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, Feb. 14, 2006. state’s three urban Indian clinics. 2 Urban Indian Health Institute, “The Health Status of Urban American Indians Susette Schwartz, CEO of the Hunter Urban Indian Clinic in and Alaska Natives,” March 16, 2004, p. v.

372 CQ Researcher Continued from p. 370 the volumes reflected and spurred on Disease Toll Higher Among Indians a growing political activism. American Indians served by the Indian Health Service (IHS) — It was in this climate that the newly mainly low-income or uninsured — die at substantially higher rates formed American Indian Movement (AIM) took over Alcatraz Island, the than the general population from liver disease, diabetes, tuberculosis, former federal prison site in San Fran- pneumonia and influenza as well as from homicide, suicide and cisco Bay (where rebellious Indians injuries. However, Indians’ death rates from Alzheimer’s disease or had been held during the Indian breast cancer are lower. Wars), to publicize demands to honor treaties and respect Native Americans’ Health Status of American Indians * dignity. The takeover lasted from Nov. Compared to General Population 20, 1969, to June 11, 1971, when U.S. (deaths per 100,000 population) marshals removed the occupiers. 45 10.2 A second AIM-government con- Alzheimer’s disease 18 frontation took the form of a one- 17.6 Breast cancer week takeover of BIA headquarters in 26.9 Washington in November 1972 by some Cervical cancer 3.8 500 AIM members protesting what 2.8 they called broken treaty obligations. Chronic liver 40.6 Protesters charged that government ser- disease/cirrhosis 9.6 vices to Indians were inadequate in 77.7 general, with urban Indians neglected Diabetes mellitus 25.2 virtually completely. Homicide 11.4 Another protest occurred on Feb. 27, 6.1 1973, when 200 AIM members occupied Pneumonia, 33.6 the village of Wounded Knee on the Native Americans in influenza 23.7 IHS areas (1999-2001) Oglala Sioux’s Pine Ridge Reservation in 17 U.S. general South Dakota. U.S. soldiers had massa- Suicide 10.6 population (2000) cred at least 150 Indians at Wounded 1.9 Knee in 1890. AIM was protesting what Tuberculosis 0.3 it called the corrupt tribal government. Unintentional 88.9 And a weak, involuntary manslaughter 35.5 charge against a non-Indian who had al- injuries legedly killed an Indian near the reser- 0 20406080100 vation had renewed Indian anger at dis- Number of deaths per 100,000 population criminatory treatment by police and judges. The occupation soon turned into a * Living in areas served by the IHS full-blown siege, with the reservation Source: “Indian Health Service: Health Care Services Are Not Always Available to surrounded by troops and federal law- Native Americans,” Government Accountability Office, August 2005 enforcement officers. During several Background image: Canyon de Chelly, Navajo Nation, Arizona (Navajo Tourism) firefights two AIM members were killed, and an FBI agent was wounded. The In 1975, Congress passed the Indi- had ended, the House in 1988 passed occupation ended on May 8, 1973. an Self-Determination and Education a resolution reaffirming the “constitu- Assistance Act, which channeled fed- tionally recognized government-to- eral contracts and grants directly to government relationship with Indian Self-Determination tribes, reducing the BIA role and ef- tribes.” Separate legislation set up a fectively putting Indian communities “self-governance demonstration pro- mid the surging Indian activism, in direct charge of schools, health, ject” in which eligible tribes would A the federal government was try- housing and other programs. sign “compacts” to run their own gov- ing to make up for the past by en- And to assure Indians that the era ernments with block grants from the couraging tribal self-determination. 46 of sudden reversals in federal policy federal government. 47

Available online: www.cqresearcher.com April 28, 2006 373 AMERICAN INDIANS

By 1993, 28 tribes nent in 1994, tribes can had negotiated com- replace program-by-pro- pacts with the Inte- gram grants by entering rior Department. And into “compacts” with the in 1994, President Bill federal government, Clinton signed legis- under which they receive lation that made self- a single grant for a va- governance a per- riety of services. Some manent option. 231 tribes and Alaskan For the general Native villages have com- public, the meaning pacts to administer a total of newly strengthened of about $341 million in Indian sovereignty programs. Of the Indian could be summed up communities now living with one word: casi- under compacts, 72 are nos. In 1988, Con- in the lower 48 states. 51 gress enacted legisla- Under a set of sepa- tion regulating tribal rate compacts, the Indi- gaming operations. Perlstein American Indian Center/Warren an Health Service has Native American children and adults in the Chicago area keep in That move followed touch with their cultural roots at the American Indian Center. turned over clinics, hos- a Supreme Court rul- About two-thirds of the nation’s Indians live in urban areas. pitals and health pro- ing (California v. grams to some 300 Cabazon) that authorized tribes to run leaving a trail of death and shattered tribes and Alaskan villages, 70 of them gambling operations. But tribes could lives. By 2002, Darrell Hillaire, chair- non-Alaskan tribes. not offer a form of gambling specifi- man of the Lummi Nation, near The self-governance model has proved cally barred by the state. Bellingham, Wash., said that members especially appropriate in Alaska, where The law set up three categories of convicted of dealing meth would be the majority of the native population of gambling operations: Class I, traditional expelled from the tribe. 49 120,000 is concentrated in 229 villages, Indian games, controlled exclusively But the Lummis couldn’t stop the many of them remote, and compact in by tribes; Class II, including bingo, spread of the scourge on other reserva- size, hence well-suited to managing lotto, pull tabs and some card games, tions. National Congress of American In- their own affairs, experts say. which are allowed on tribal lands in dians President Garcia said early in 2006: Another advantage of Alaska villages states that allow the games elsewhere; “Methamphetamine is a poison taking is the experience they acquired through and Class III, which takes in casino Indian lives, destroying Indian families, the 1971 Alaska Native Claims Settlement games such as slot machines, roulette and razing entire communities.” 50 Act, which granted a total of $962 mil- and blackjack, which can be offered lion to Alaska natives born on or before only under agreements with state gov- Dec. 18, 1971, in exchange for giving ernments that set out the size and up their claims to millions of acres of types of the proposed casinos. CURRENT land. Villages formed regional corpora- Limits that the Indian Gaming Regu- tions to manage the assets. In addition, latory Act put on Indian sovereignty all Alaska residents receive an annual were tightened further by a 1996 Supreme SITUATION dividend ($946 in 2005) from natural- Court decision that the Seminole Tribe resource royalty income. 52 couldn’t sue Florida to force negotiation “The emergence of tribal authority of a casino compact. The decision es- Self-Government is unprecedented in Indian Country’s sentially forced tribes nationwide to make history,” says Allen, of the Jamestown revenue-sharing deals with states in re- ome Indian leaders are advocat- S’Klallam Tribe, one of the originators turn for approval of casinos. 48 S ing more power for tribal gov- of the self-governance model. “Why not Meanwhile, particularily on reser- ernments as the best way to improve take the resources you have available vations from Minnesota to the Pacific the quality of life on reservations. and use them as efficiently as you can Northwest, a plague of methampheta- Under the Tribal Self-Governance — more efficiently than currently mine addiction and manufacturing is Demonstration Project, made perma- being administered?” 53

374 CQ Researcher But the poorer and more populous More proposals are in the pipeline. bling — a concern that arose from a tribes of the Great Plains and the Jemez Pueblo of New Mexico wants 2005 decision by the U.S. Court of Ap- Southwest have turned down the self- to build a casino near the town of peals for the District of Columbia that governance model. “They can’t afford Anthony, though the pueblo is 300 limited the agency’s jurisdiction over to do it,” says Michael LaPointe, chief miles away. 54 a Colorado tribe. The commission has of staff to President Rodney Bordeaux In eastern Oregon, the Warm Springs been worrying that applying that de- of the Rosebud Sioux Tribe. “When you Tribe is proposing an off-reservation cision nationwide would eliminate have a lot of poverty and not a lot of casino at the Columbia River Gorge. federal supervision of casinos. economic activity to generate tribal re- And in Washington state, the Cowlitz McCain told a March 8 Senate In- sources to supplement the unfunded and Mohegan tribes are planning an dian Affairs Committee hearing that the mandates, it becomes impossible.” off-reservation casino near Portland. 55 two-part test “is fostering opposition to In contrast with the Jameston The process has been dubbed “reser- all Indian gaming.” 56 S’Klallam’s tiny membership of 585 vation shopping.” If the senator had been aiming to people, there are some 24,000 people Under the Indian Gaming Regula- soften tribal opposition to his bill, he on the Rosebud Siouxs’ million-acre tory Act of 1988, a tribe can acquire didn’t make much headway. “We be- reservation. The tribe does operate off-reservation land for casinos when lieve that it grows out of anecdotal, anti- law enforcement, ambulances and other it is: Indian press reports on Indian gaming, services under contracts with the gov- • granted as part of a land claim the overblown issue of off-reservation ernment. But it can’t afford to do any settlement; gaming, and a ‘pin-the-blame-on-the- more, LaPointe says. • granted to a newly recognized victim’ reaction to the Abramoff scan- A combined effect of the gambling tribe as its reservation; dal,” Ron His Horse Is Thunder, chair- boom and the growing adoption of the • restored to a tribe whose tribal man of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe self-governance model is that much of recognition is also restored; or of North Dakota and South Dakota, told the tension has gone out of the tradi- • granted to a recognized tribe that the committee. He argued that the bill tionally strained relationship between had no reservation when the act would amount to unconstitutional med- the BIA and tribes. “BIA people are took effect. dling with Indian sovereignty. getting pushed out as decision-makers,” The most hotly debated exemption But the idea of restricting “reservation- Kalt says. Some strains remain, to be allows the secretary of the Interior to shopping” appeals to tribes facing com- sure. Allen says he senses a growing grant an off-reservation acquisition petition from other tribes. Cheryle A. reluctance by the BIA to let go of tribes. that benefits the tribe without harm- Kennedy, chairwoman of the Confed- “They use the argument that that the ing the community near the proposed erated Tribes of the Grand Ronde Com- BIA doesn’t have the money [for block casino location. Both Pombo and Mc- munity of Oregon, said her tribe’s Spir- grants],” he says. Cain would repeal the loophole cre- it Mountain Casino could be hurt by BIA Director Ragsdale acknowledges ated by this so-called “two-part test.” the Warm Springs Tribes’ proposed that tougher financial-accounting re- Under Pombo’s bill, tribes acquiring project or by the Cowlitz and Mohegan quirements sparked by a lawsuit over land under the other exemptions would project. 57 Interior Department handling of Indi- have to have solid historic and recent Pombo’s bill would require the ap- an trust funds are slowing the com- ties to the property. Communities, proval of new casinos by tribes that pact-approval process. (See “Trust Set- state governors and state legislatures already have gambling houses up and tlement” below.) But, he adds, “We’re would have to approve the establish- running within 75 miles of a proposed not trying to hinder self-governance.” ment of new casinos, and tribes would new one. reimburse communities for the effects The House Resources Committee of casinos on transportation, law en- heard another view from Indian Coun- Limits on Gambling forcement and other public services. try at an April 5 hearing. Jacquie Davis- McCain’s bill would impose fewer Van Huss, tribal secretary of the North everal legislative efforts to limit restrictions than Pombo’s. But McCain Fork Rancheria of the Mono Indians of S Indian gaming are pending. Sepa- would give the National Indian Gam- California, said Pombo’s approval rate bills by Sen. McCain and House ing Commission final say over all con- clause would doom her tribe’s plans. Resources Committee Chairman Richard tracts with outside suppliers of goods “This provision is anti-competitive,” she Pombo, R-Calif., would restrict tribes’ and services. testified. “It effectively provides the power ability to acquire new land for casinos The bill would also ensure the com- to veto another tribe’s gaming project in more favorable locations. mission’s control over big-time gam- simply to protect market share.”

Available online: www.cqresearcher.com April 28, 2006 375 AMERICAN INDIANS

Urban Indians: Invisible and Unheard

wo-thirds of the nation’s 4.4 million American Indians professor of planning at the University of New Mexico (and a live in towns and cities, but they’re hard to find. 1 “In- member of the Census Bureau’s advisory committee on Indi- T dians who move into metropolitan areas are scattered; an population). “My community [Isleta Pueblo] is seven min- they’re not in a centralized geographical area,” says New Mex- utes south of Albuquerque. The reservation has become an ico Secretary of Labor Conroy Chino. “You don’t have that co- urban amenity to me.” hesive community where there’s a sense of culture and lan- Some might see a home on Indian land near the city as a guage, as in Chinatown or Koreatown in Los Angeles.” refuge from discrimination. “There have been years where you Chino’s interest is professional as well as personal. In his couldn’t reveal you were native if you wanted to get a job,” former career as a television journalist in Albuquerque, Chino, says Joseph Podlasek, executive director of the American In- a member of the Acoma Pueblo, wrote an independent doc- dian Center of Chicago. umentary about urban Indians. His subjects range from a city- Joycelyn Dorscher, president of the Association of American loving San Franciscan who vacations in Hawaii to city-dwellers Indian Physicians, recalls a painful experience several years ago who return to their reservations every vacation they get. Their when she rushed her 6-year-old daughter to a hospital emer- lives diverge sharply from what University of Arizona anthro- gency room in Minneapolis-St. Paul, suspecting appendicitis. The pologist Susan Lobo calls a “presumption that everything Indian young intern assigned to the case saw an Indian single mother is rural and long, long ago.” 2 with a sick child and apparently assumed that the daughter was Indian society began urbanizing in 1951, when the Bureau suffering from neglect. “She told me if I didn’t sit down and shut of Indian Affairs (BIA) started urging reservation dwellers to up, my daughter would go into the [child-protective] system,” re- move to cities where — it was hoped — they would blend calls Dorscher, who at the time was a third-year medical student. into the American “melting pot” and find more economic op- Even Chino, whose mainstream credentials include an M.A. from portunity and a better standard of living. 3 Princeton, feels alienated at times from non-Indian city dwellers. But many found the urban environment oppressive and the He notes that Albuquerque officials ignored Indians’ objections to government assistance less generous than promised. About a statue honoring Juan de Oñate, the 16th-century conqueror who 100,000 Indians were relocated between 1951 and 1973, when established Spanish rule in what is now New Mexico. “Though na- the program wound down; unable to fit in, many fell into al- tive people protested and tried to show why this is not a good coholism and despair. 4 idea,” Chino says, “the city went ahead and funded it.” 5 Still, a small, urban Indian middle class has developed over In the long run, Chino hopes a growing presence of Indian time, partly because the BIA began systematically hiring Indians professionals — “we’re not all silversmiths, or weavers” — will in its offices. Indians keep such a low profile, however, that the create more acceptance of urban Indians and more aid to com- Census Bureau has a hard time finding them. Lobo, who con- bat high Indian dropout rates and other problems. “While peo- sulted for the bureau in 1990, recalls that the agency’s policy at ple like having Indians in New Mexico and like visitors to get a the time was to register any household where no one answered feel for the last bastion of native culture,” he says, “they’re not the door as being in the same ethnic group as the neighbors. doing that much for the urban Indian community, though we’re That strategy worked with urban ethnic groups who tended to paying taxes, too.” cluster together, Lobo says, but not with Native Americans be- cause theirs was a “dispersed population.” 1 Urban Indians were 64 percent of the population in 2000, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. For background, see, “We the People: American Indians By the 2000 census that problem was resolved, but anoth- and Alaska Natives in the United States,” U.S. Census Bureau, 2000, p. 14, er one cropped up. “American Indians are ingenious at keep- www.census.gov/prod/2006pubs/censr-28.pdf. 2 ing expenses down — by couch-surfing, for instance,” Lobo “Looking Toward Home,” Native American Public Telecommunications, 2003, www.visionmaker.org. says. “There’s a floating population that doesn’t get counted 3 Donald L. Fixico, The Urban Indian Experience in America (2000), pp. 9-11. because they weren’t living in a standard residence.” 4 Ibid., pp. 22-25. But other urban Indians live conventional, middle-class lives, 5 Oñate is especially disliked at Acoma, Chino’s birthplace, where the con- sometimes even while technically living on Indian land. “I am queror had the feet of some two-dozen Acoma men cut off in 1599 after Span- ish soldiers were killed there. For background, see Wren Propp, “A Giant of highly educated, a professor in the university, and my gainful Ambivalence,” Albuquerque Journal, Jan. 25, 2004, p. A1; Brenda Norrell, “Pueb- employment is in the city of Albuquerque,” says Ted Jojola, a los Decry War Criminal,” Indian Country Today, June 25, 2004.

tle a decade-old lawsuit that has ex- governmental irresponsibility in its Trust Settlement posed longstanding federal mis- purest form.” 58 management of trust funds. In 1999, The alternative to settlement, McCain cCain’s committee is also U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth and Dorgan told the Budget Committee, M grappling with efforts to set- said evidence showed “fiscal and Continued on p. 378

376 CQ Researcher At Issue:

ShouldYes tribes open casinos on newly acquired land?

ERNEST L. STEVENS, JR. STATE REP. FULTON SHEEN, R-PLAINWELL CHAIRMAN, NATIONAL INDIAN GAMING MICHIGAN HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES ASSOCIATION FROM STATEMENT TO U.S. HOUSE COMMITTEE ON FROM STATEMENT BEFORE U.S. HOUSE COMMITTEE ON RESOURCES, APRIL 5, 2006 RESOURCES, NOV. 9, 2005 he rampant proliferation of tribal gaming is running ndian gaming is the Native American success story. Where roughshod over states’ rights and local control and is jeop- there were no jobs, now there are 553,000 jobs. Where our ardizing everything from my own neighborhood to — as people had only an eighth-grade education on average, t i the Jack Abramoff scandal has demonstrated — the very integri- tribal governments are building schools and funding college ty of our federal political system. scholarships. Where the United States and boarding schools In 1988, Congress passed the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act sought to suppress our languages, tribal schools are now teach- (IGRA) in an effort to control the development of Native ing their native language. Where our people suffer epidemic di- American casinos and, in particular, to make sure that the states abetes, heart disease and premature death, our tribes are build- had a meaningful role in the development of any casinos ing hospitals, health clinics and wellness centers. within their borders. At that time, Native American gambling Historically, the United States signed treaties guaranteeing accounted for less than 1 percent of the nation’s gambling Indian lands as permanent homes, and then a few years later, industry, grossing approximately $100 million in revenue. went to war to take our lands. This left our people to live in Since that time, the Native American casino business has poverty, often on desolate lands, while others mined for gold exploded into an $18.5 billion industry that controls 25 percent or pumped oil from the lands that were taken from us. of gaming industry revenue. Despite this unbridled growth, Indian gamingyes is an exercise of our inherent right to self- IGRA and the land-in-trustno process remain basically unchanged. government. Today, for over 60 percent of Indian tribes in the When Congress originally enacted IGRA, the general rule lower 48 states, Indian gaming offers new hope and a chance was that casino gambling would not take place on newly ac- for a better life for our children. quired trust land. I believe Congress passed this general rule Too many lands were taken from Indian tribes, leaving to prevent precisely what we see happening: a mad and some tribes landless or with no useful lands. To take account largely unregulated land rush pushed by casino developers of historical mistreatment, the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act eager to cash in on a profitable revenue stream that is not (IGRA), provided several exceptions to the rule that Indian burdened by the same tax rates or regulations that other busi- tribes should conduct Indian gaming on lands held on Oct. nesses have to incur. “Reservation shopping” is an activity that 17, 1988. must be stopped. And that is just one component of the full Accordingly, land is restored to an Indian tribe in trust sta- legislative overhaul that is needed. tus when the tribe is restored to federal recognition. For fed- IGRA and its associated land-in-trust process is broken, open erally recognized tribes that did not have reservation land on to manipulation by special interests and in desperate need of the date IGRA was enacted, land is put into trust. Or, a tribe immediate reform. It has unfairly and inappropriately fostered an may apply to the secretary of the Interior. The secretary con- industry that creates enormous wealth for a few select individu- sults with state and local officials and nearby Indian tribes to als and Las Vegas interests at the expense of taxpaying families, determine whether an acquisition of land in trust for gaming small businesses, manufacturing jobs and local governments. would be in the tribe’s “best interest” and “not detrimental to Our research shows that while local and state governments the surrounding community.” receive some revenue-sharing percentages from tribal gaming, Now, legislation would require “newly recognized, re- the dollars pale in comparison to the overall new costs to stored, or landless tribes” to apply to have land taken in government and social-service agencies from increased infra- trust through a five-part process. Subjecting tribes to this new structure demands, traffic, bankruptcies, crime, divorce and and cumbersome process discounts the fact that the United general gambling-related ills. States mistreated these tribes by ignoring and neglecting I do not think this is what Congress had in mind. Some- them, taking all of their lands or allowing their lands to be where along the way, the good intentions of Congress have stolen by others. been hijacked, and it is time for this body to reassert control We believe that Congress should restore these tribes to a over this process. It is imperative that Congress take swift and portion of their historical lands and that these lands should be decisive steps today to get its arms around this issue before held onNo the same basis as other Indian lands. more jobs are lost and more families are put at risk.

Available online: www.cqresearcher.com April 28, 2006 377 AMERICAN INDIANS

Continued from p. 376 tracts of land owned by 223,245 indi- decision favoring Indians is going to in- is for the case to drag on through the viduals — or, 2.3 million “ownership convenience too many white people, then courts. Congressional resolution of the interests” on some 12 million acres, laches applies — I swear that’s what it conflict could also spare the Interior Cason and Ross Swimmer, a special says.” Tribes litigating fishing rights, water Department further grief from Lamberth. trustee, told the committee. rights and other assets are likely to suf- In a February ruling, he said Interior’s Bickerman said a settlement amount fer in court as a result, he argues. refusal to make payments owed to In- of $27.5 billion proposed by the Indian In fact, only three months after the dians was “an obscenity that harkens plaintiffs was “without foundation.” But high court decision, the 2nd U.S. Cir- back to the darkest days of United the Interior Department proposed a set- cuit Court of Appeals in New York in- States-Indian relations.” 59 tlement of $500 million based on “arbi- voked laches in rejecting a claim by Five months later, Lamberth suggested trary and false assumptions,” he added. the Cayuga Tribe. Vickers of Upstate that Congress, not the courts, may be Both sides agree that some $13 billion Citizens for Equality says that if the the proper setting for the conflict. “In- should have been paid to individual 2nd Circuit “thinks that laches forbids terior’s unremitting neglect and mis- Indians over the life of the trust, but the Cayugas from making a claim be- management of the Indian trust has left they disagree over how much was cause the Supreme Court said so, you’re it in such a shambles that recovery may actually paid. going to find other courts saying so.” prove impossible.” 60 In Washington, Alexandra Page, an The court case has its roots in the attorney with the Indian Law Resource 1887 policy of allotting land to Indi- Supreme Court Ruling Center, agrees. “There are tribes in the ans in an effort to break up reserva- West who have boundary disputes on tions. Since then, the Interior Depart- owerful repercussions are expect- their reservations; there are water-law ment has been responsible for P ed from the Supreme Court’s latest cases where you’ve got people look- managing payments made to land- decision in a centuries-long string of rul- ing back at what happened years ago, holders, which later included tribes, ings involving competing claims to land so the Supreme Court decision could for mining and other natural-resource by Indians and non-Indians. have significant practical impact. The extraction on Indian-owned land. In 2005, the high court said the danger is that those with an interest in But for decades, Indians weren’t re- Oneida Indian Nation of New York limiting Indian rights will do everything ceiving what they were owed. On could not quit paying taxes on 10 parcels they can to expand the decision and June 10, 1996, Elouise Cobell, an or- of land it owns north of Utica. 61 use it in other circumstances.” ganizer of the Blackfeet National Bank, After buying the parcels in 1997 the first Indian-owned national bank and 1998, the tribe refused to pay on a reservation, sued the Interior De- property taxes, arguing that the land partment charging that she and all other was former tribal property now re- OUTLOOK trust fee recipients had been cheated stored to tribal ownership, and there- for decades out of money that Interi- by tax-exempt. 62 or was responsible for managing. The court, in an opinion written by “Lands and resources — in many cases Ruth Bader Ginsburg, concluded that Who Is an Indian? the only source of income for some though the tribe used to own the land, of our nation’s poorest and most vul- the property right was too old to re- f advocates of Indian self-governance nerable citizens — have been grossly vive. “Rekindling the embers of sover- I are correct, the number of tribes run- mismanaged,” Cobell told the Indian eignty that long ago grew cold” is out ning their own affairs with minimal fed- Affairs Committee on March 1. of the question, Ginsburg wrote. She eral supervision will keep on growing. The mismanagement is beyond dis- invoked the legal doctrine of “laches,” “The requests for workshops are com- pute, said John Bickerman, who was in which a party who waits too long ing in steadily,” says Cyndi Holmes, self- appointed to broker a settlement. Es- to assert his rights loses them. 63 governance coordinator of the Jamestown sentially, Bickerman told the Senate Lawyers on both sides of Indian law S’Klallam Tribe. Indian Affairs Committee on March 28, cases expect the case to affect lower- Others say that growth, now at a rate “Money was not collected; money was court rulings throughout the country. “The of about three tribes a year, may be not properly deposited; and money court has opened the cookie jar,” nearing its upper limit. “When you look was not properly disbursed.” Williams of the University of Arizona ar- at the options for tribes to do self-gov- As of 2005, Interior is responsible gues. “Does laches only apply to claims ernance, economics really drives whether for trust payments involving 126,079 of sovereignty over reacquired land? If a they can,” says LaPointe of the Rosebud

378 CQ Researcher Sioux, whose tribal gov- collective survival is histor- ernment doesn’t expect ically well-founded. Histo- to adopt the model in rian Elizabeth Shoemaker of the foreseeable future. the University of Connecti- But the longstanding cut at Storrs calculated that problems of rural and the Indian population of isolated reservations are what is now the continen- not the only dimension tal United States plummet- of Indian life. People ed from a top estimate of stereotypically viewed 5.5 million in 1492 to a as tied to the land have mere 237,000 in 1900. In- become increasingly dian life expectancy didn’t urban over the past begin to rise significantly several decades, and the until after 1940. 64 view from Indian Now, Indians are worry- Country is that the trend ing about the survival of In- will continue. dian civilization at a time when That doesn’t mean Indians’ physical survival has reservations will empty never been more assured. out or lose their cultur- Even as these existential al importance. “Urban In- worries trouble some Indian dian is not a lifelong leaders, the living conditions label,” says Susan Lobo, that most Indians endure

an anthropologist at the Ho-Chunk, Inc. also pose long-term concerns. University of Arizona. “In- Harvard Law School graduate Lance Morgan, a member of Conroy Chino, New dian people, like every- Nebraska’s Winnebago Tribe, used seed money from his tribe’s Mexico’s Labor secretary and one else, can move small casino to create several thriving businesses. He urges a member of Acoma Pueblo, other tribes to use their casino profits to diversify. around. They’re still “Gaming is just a means to an end,” he says. says continuation of the ed- American Indians.” ucational disaster in Indian For Indians, as for all other peoples, wife is Indian, but from another tribe. Country is dooming young people to moving around leads to intermarriage. “My kids can be on the tribal rolls, but live on the margins. “I’m out there at- Matthew Snipp, a Stanford University so- their kids won’t be able to enroll, un- tracting companies to come to New ciologist who is half Cherokee and half less they went back to my tribe or to Mexico, and these kids aren’t going to Oklahoma Choctaw, notes that Indians their mother’s tribe to marry — de- qualify for those good jobs.” have long married within and outside pending on what their partners’ blood Nevertheless, below most non-Indians’ Indian society. But the consequences of quantum is. In generations, you could radar screen, the Indian professional class intermarriage are different for Indians say that, by government standards, is growing. “When I got my Ph.D. in than for, say, Jews or Italians. there are no more native people.” 1973, I think I was the 15th in the coun- The Indian place in American so- Snipp traces the blood-quantum pol- try,” says Beaulieu of Arizona State Uni- ciety grows out of the government-to- icy to a 1932 decision by the Indian Af- versity’s Center for Indian Education. government relationship between fairs Commission, which voted to make “Now we have all kinds of Ph.D.s, Washington and tribes. And most one-quarter descent the minimum stan- teachers with certification, lawyers.” And tribes define their members by what’s dard. The commissioners were concerned, Beaulieu says he has seen the differ- known as the “blood quantum” — Snipp says, reading from the commis- ence that Indian professionals make in their degree of tribal ancestry. sion’s report, that thousands of people his home state of Minnesota. “You’re “I look at it as you’re kind of USDA- “more white than Indian” were receiv- beginning to see an educated middle approved,” says Podlasek of the Amer- ing “shares in tribal estates and other class in the reservation community, and ican Indian Center. “Why is no other benefits.” Tribes are no longer bound realizing that they’re volunteering to per- race measured that way?” by that decision, but the requirement — form lots of services.” Podlasek is especially sensitive to the originally inserted at BIA insistence — In Albuquerque, the University of issue. His father was Polish-American, remains in many tribal constitutions. New Mexico’s Jojola commutes to and his mother was Ojibway. His own On the Indian side, concern over campus from Isleta Pueblo. Chairman

Available online: www.cqresearcher.com April 28, 2006 379 AMERICAN INDIANS of an advisory committee on Indians hpaied/pubs/pub_151.htm. These data ex- with the Justice Department in its Washington- to the U.S. Census Bureau, Jojola shares clude the Navajo Tribe, whose on-reserva- based political-corruption investigation. For back- concerns about use of “blood quan- tion population of about 175,000 is 12 times ground see Peter Katel, “Lobbying Boom,” tum” as the sole determinant of Indi- that of the next-largest tribe, thus distorting CQ Researcher, July 22, 2005, pp. 613-636. 17 an identity. “A lot of people are say- comparisons, Taylor and Kalt write. Meister, op. cit., pp. 27-28. For additional 5 Ibid., p. 41. background, see John Cochran, “A Piece of ing that language, culture and residence 6 McCain and Dorgan, op. cit. the Action,” CQ Weekly, May 9, 2005, p. 1208. should also be considered,” he says. 7 “Injury Mortality Among American Indian 18 For background, see, “A Quiet Crisis: Fed- That standard would implicitly rec- and Alaska Native Youth, United States, 1989- eral Funding and Unmet Needs in Indian ognize what many Indians call the sin- 1998,” Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, Country,” U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, gle biggest reason that American In- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, July, 2003, pp. 32, 113. www.usccr.gov/pubs/ dians have outlasted the efforts of those Aug. 1, 2003, www.cdc.gov/mmwr/pre- na0703/na0731.pdf. who wanted to exterminate or to as- view/mmwrhtml/mm5230a2.htm#top. 19 Ryan Wilson, “State of Indian Education similate them. “In our spirituality we 8 Robert McSwain, deputy director, Indian Health Address,” Feb. 13, 2006, www.niea.org/his- remain strong,” says Bordeaux of the Service, testimony before Senate Indian Affairs tory/SOIEAddress06.pdf. 20 Rosebud Sioux. “That’s our godsend Committee, April 5, 2006. For background see, Barbara Mantel, “No 9 and our lifeline.” Ibid., p. xii. Child Left Behind,” CQ Researcher, May 27, 10 Taylor and Kalt, op. cit. 2005, pp. 469-492. 11 Ibid., pp. 28-30. 21 McCain and Dorgan, op. cit., pp. 14-15. 12 Ibid., pp. 22-24. 22 According to the Health and Human Services Notes 13 The decision is Cherokee Nation v. Georgia, Department’s budget proposal, recommended 30 U.S. 1 (1831), http://supreme.justia.com/us/ funding of $2 billion for the health centers would 1 For background, see “The Administration of 30/1/case.html. allow them to serve 150,000 Indian patients, Indian Affairs,” Editorial Research Reports 1929 14 Alan Meister, “Indian Gaming industry Re- among a total of 8.8 million patients. For back- (Vol. II), at CQ Researcher Plus Archive, CQ port,” Analysis Group, 2006, p. 2. Publicly avail- ground, see “Budget in Brief, Fiscal Year 2007,” Electronic Library, http://library.cqpress.com. able data can be obtained at, “Indian Gaming Department of Health and Human Services, p. 2 For background see Phil Two Eagle, “Rosebud Facts,” www.indiangaming.org/library/indian- 26, www.hhs.gov/budget/07budget/2007Bud- Sioux Tribe, Demographics,” March 25, 2003, gaming-facts; “Gaming Revenues, 2000-2004,” getInBrief.pdf. www.rosebudsiouxtribe-nsn.gov/demographics. National Indian Gaming Commission, 23 Peter Whoriskey, “A Tribe Takes a Grim 3 “American Indian Population and Labor www.nigc.gov/TribalData/GamingRevenues2004 Satisfaction in Abramoff’s Fall,” The Washington Force Report 2003,” p. ii, Bureau of Indian 2000/tabid/549/Default.aspx. Post, Jan. 7, 2006, p. A1. Affairs, cited in John McCain, chairman, Sen- 15 The ruling is California v. Cabazon Band 24 Meister, op. cit., p. 15. ate Indian Affairs Committee, Byron L. Dor- of Mission Indians, 480 U.S. 202 (1987), 25 Whoriskey, op. cit. gan, vice chairman, letter to Senate Budget http://supreme.justia.com/us/480/202/case.html. 26 For background see Fred Carstensen, et al., Committee, March 2, 2006, http://indian.sen- 16 For background, see Susan Schmidt and “The Economic Impact of the Mashantucket Pe- ate.gov/public/_files/Budget5.pdf. James V. Grimaldi, “The Rise and Steep Fall of quot Tribal National Operations on Connecticut,” 4 Jonathan B. Taylor and Joseph P. Kalt, Jack Abramoff,” The Washington Post, Dec. 29, Connecticut Center for Economic Analysis, Uni- “American Indians on Reservations: A Data- 2005, p. A1. On March 29, Abramoff was sen- versity of Connecticut, Nov. 28, 2000, pp. 1-3. book of Socioeconomic Change Between the tenced in Miami to 70 months in prison after 27 “Gambling Revenues 2004-2000,” National 1990 and 2000 Censuses,” Harvard Project on pleading to fraud, tax evasion and conspiracy Indian Gaming Commission, www.nigc.gov/ American Indian Economic Development, Jan- to bribe public officials in charges growing out TribalData/GamingRevenues20042000/tabid/54 uary 2005, pp. 8-13; www.ksg.harvard.edu/ of a Florida business deal. He is cooperating 9/Default.aspx. 28 Schmidt and Grimaldi, op. cit. 29 Alaina Potrikus, “2nd Land Hearing Packed,” The Post-Standard (Syracuse, N.Y.), Jan. 12, About the Author 2006, p. B1. Peter Katel is a CQ Researcher staff writer who previ- 30 For background see “Profile of the Navajo ously reported on Haiti and Latin America for Time and Nation,” Navajo Nation Council, www.navajo Newsweek and covered the Southwest for newspapers nationcouncil.org/profile. 31 Leslie Linthicum, “Navajos Cautious About in New Mexico. He has received several journalism Opening Casinos,” Albuquerque Journal, Dec. awards, including the Bartolomé Mitre Award for drug 12, 2004, p. B1. coverage from the Inter-American Press Association. He 32 For background, see “Fourth Annual State holds an A.B. in university studies from the University of Indian Nations,” Feb. 2, 2006, www.ncai.org/ of New Mexico. His recent reports include “Immigration News_Archive.18.0. Reform” and “Rebuilding New Orleans.” 33 For background see Theodore H. Haas, The Indian and the Law (1949), p. 2;

380 CQ Researcher thorpe.ou.edu/cohen/tribalgovtpam2pt1&2.ht m#Tribal%20Power%20Today. 34 Except where otherwise noted, material in FOR MORE INFORMATION this section is drawn from Angie Debo, A Committee on Indian Affairs, U.S. Senate, 838 Hart Office Building, Washington, History of the Indians of the United States DC 20510; (202) 224-2251; http://indian.senate.gov/public. A valuable source of in- (1970); see also, Mary H. Cooper, “Native formation on developments affecting Indian Country. Americans’ Future,” CQ Researcher, July 12, 1996, pp. 603-621. Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development, John F. 35 W. Dale Mason, “Indian Gaming: Tribal Sov- Kennedy School of Government, 79 John F. Kennedy St., Cambridge, MA 02138; ereignty and American Politics,” 2000, p. 13. (617) 495-1480; www.ksg.harvard.edu/hpaied. Explores strategies for Indian ad- 36 Cherokee Nation v. Georgia, op. cit., 30 U.S.1, vancement. http://supct.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/historics/ USSC_CR_0030_0001_ZO.html. Indian Health Service, The Reyes Building, 801 Thompson Ave., Suite 400, 37 Robert A. Williams Jr., Like a Loaded Weapon: Rockville, MD 20852; (301) 443-1083; www.ihs.gov. One of the most important the Rehnquist Court, Indians Rights, and the Legal federal agencies in Indian Country; provides a wide variety of medical and ad- History of Racism in America (2005), p. 63. ministrative information. 38 Johnson v. M’Intosh, 21 U.S. 543 (1823), www.Justia.us/us21543/case.html; Worcester National Coalition Against Legalized Gambling, 100 Maryland Ave., N.E., Room 311, Washington, DC 20002; (800) 664-2680; www.ncalg.org. Provides anti-gambling v. State of Ga., 31 U.S. 515 (1832), www.jus- material that touches on tribe-owned operations. tia.us/us/31/515/case.html. 39 Johnson v. M’Intosh, op. cit. 40 National Indian Education Association, 110 Maryland Ave., N.E., Suite 104, Worcester v. State of Ga., op. cit. Washington, DC 20002; (202) 544-7290; www.niea.org/welcome. Primary organization 41 Quoted in Debo, op. cit., pp. 219-220. and lobbying voice for Indian educators. 42 Quoted in ibid., p. 303. 43 The specified states were Wisconsin, Min- National Indian Gaming Association, 224 Second St., S.E., Washington, DC nesota (except Red Lake), Nebraska, California 20003; (202) 546-7711; www.indiangaming.org. Trade association and lobbying and Oregon (except the land of several tribes arm of the tribal casino industry. at Warm Springs). For background, see Debo, op. cit., pp. 304-311. Self-Governance Communication and Education Tribal Consortium, 1768 Iowa 44 Cited in Debo, op. cit., p. 344. Business Center, Bellingham, WA 98229; (360) 752-2270; www.tribalselfgov.org. Orga- 45 For background see Troy R. Johnson, The nizational hub of Indian self-governance movement; provides a wide variety of news Occupation of Alcatraz Island: Indian Self- and data. Determination and the Rise of Indian Ac- Upstate Citizens for Equality, P.O. Box 24, Union Springs, NY 13160; http://upstate- tivism (1996). citizens.org. Opposes tribal land-claim litigation. 46 For background, see Mary H. Cooper, “Na- tive Americans’ Future,” CQ Researcher, July 12, 1996, pp. 603-621. ka/dividendprgrm. cfm?s=4. 58 Matt Kelley, “Government asks for secrecy 47 For background see “History of the Trib- 53 For background see Eric Henson and Jonathan on its lawyers’ role in concealing document al Self-Governance Initiative,” Self-Governance B. Taylor, “Native America at the New Millen- shredding,” The Associated Press, Nov. 2, 2000. Tribal Consortium, www.tribalselfgov.org/ nium,” Harvard Project on American Indian De- 59 “Memorandum and Order,” Civil Action Red%20Book/SG_New_Partnership.asp. velopment, Native Nations Institute, First Nations No. 96-1285 (RCL), Feb. 7, 2005, www.indi- 48 Cochran, op. cit. Development Institute, 2002, pp. 14-16, antrust.com/index.cfm?FuseAction=PDFTypes. 49 For background see Paul Shukovsky, www.ksg.harvard.edu/hpaied/pubs/pub_004.htm. Home&PDFType_id=1&IsRecent=1. “Lummi Leader’s Had It With Drugs, Sick of 54 Michael Coleman, “Jemez Casino Propos- 60 “Memorandum Opinion,” Civil Action 96- Substance Abuse Ravaging the Tribe,” Seat- al At Risk,” Albuquerque Journal, March 10, 1285 (RCL), July 12, 2005, www.indi- tle Post-Intelligencer, March 16, 2002, p. A1. 2006, p. A1; Jeff Jones, “AG Warns Against antrust.com/index.cfm?FuseAction=PDFTypes. 50 “Fourth Annual State of Indian Nations,” Off-Reservation Casino,” Albuquerque Jour- Home&PDFType_id=1&IsRecent=1. op. cit. nal, June 18, 2005, p. A1. 61 Glenn Coin, “Supreme Court: Oneidas Too 51 Many Alaskan villages have joined collective 55 For background see testimony, “Off-Reser- Late; Sherrill Declares Victory, Wants Taxes,” The compacts, so the total number of these agree- vation Indian Gaming,” House Resources Com- Post-Standard (Syracuse), March 30, 2005, p. A1. ments is 91. mittee, Nov. 9, 2005, http://resourcescommit- 62 Ibid. 52 For background see Alexandra J. McClana- tee.house.gov/archives/109/full/110905.htm. 63 City of Sherrill, New York, v. Oneida Indian han, “Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act 56 Jerry Reynolds, “Gaming regulatory act to Nation of New York, Supreme Court of the Unit- (ANCSA),” Cook Inlet Region Inc., http://litsite. lose its ‘two-part test,’ ” Indian Country Today, ed States, 544 U.S._(2005), pp. 1-2, 6, 14, 21. alaska.edu/aktraditions/ancsa.html; “The Per- March 8, 2006. 64 Elizabeth Shoemaker, American Indian Pop- manent Fund Dividend,” Alaska Permanent 57 Testimony before House Resources Com- ulation Recovery in the Twentieth Century Fund Corporation, 2005, www.apfc.org/alas- mittee, Nov. 9, 2005. (1999), pp. 1-13.

Available online: www.cqresearcher.com April 28, 2006 381 Bibliography Selected Sources

Books Morgan, Lance, “Ending the Curse of Trust Land,” Indian Country Today, March 18, 2005, www.indian- Alexie, Sherman, The Toughest Indian in the World, Grove country.com/content.cfm?id=1096410559. Press, 2000. A lawyer and pioneering tribal entrepreneur lays out his vi- In a short-story collection, an author and screenwriter draws sion of a revamped legal-political system in which Indians on his own background as a Spokane/Coeur d’Alene Indian would own their tribal land outright, with federal supervision to describe reservation and urban Indian life in loving but ended. unsentimental detail. Robbins, Ted, “Tribal cultures, nutrition clash on fry Debo, Angie, A History of the Indians of the United bread,” “All Things Considered,” National Public Radio, States, University of Oklahoma Press, 1970. Oct. 26, 2005, transcript available at www.npr.org/tem- A pioneering historian and champion of Indian rights pro- plates/story/story.php?storyId=4975889. vides one of the leading narrative histories of the first five Indian health educators have tried to lower Native Americans’ centuries of Indian and non-Indian coexistence and conflict. consumption of a beloved but medically disastrous treat.

Deloria, Vine Jr., Custer Died For Your Sins: An Indian Thompson, Ginger, “As a Sculpture Takes Shape in New Manifesto, University of Oklahoma Press, 1988. Mexico, Opposition Takes Shape in the U.S.,” The New First published in 1969, this angry book gave many non- York Times, Jan. 17, 2002, p. A12. Indians a look at how the United States appeared through Indian outrage has clashed with Latino pride over a stat- Indians’ eyes and spurred many young Native Americans into ue celebrating the ruthless Spanish conqueror of present-day political activism. New Mexico.

Mason, W. Dale, Indian Gaming: Tribal Sovereignty and Wagner, Dennis, “Tribes Across Country Confront Horrors American Politics, University of Oklahoma Press, 2000. of Meth,” The Arizona Republic, March 31, 2006, p. A1. A University of New Mexico political scientist provides the Methamphetamine use and manufacturing have become the essential background on the birth and early explosive growth scourge of Indian Country. of Indian-owned gambling operations. Reports and Studies Williams, Robert A., Like a Loaded Weapon: The Rehn- quist Court, Indians Rights, and the Legal History of “Indian Health Service: Health Care Services Are Not Al- Racism in America, University of Minnesota Press, 2005. ways Available to Native Americans,” Government Ac- A professor of law and American Indian Studies at the Uni- countability Office, August 2005. versity of Arizona and tribal appeals court judge delivers a Congress’ investigative arm concludes that financial short- detailed and angry analysis of the history of U.S. court de- falls combined with dismal reservation conditions, including cisions affecting Indians. scarce transportation, are stunting medical care for many American Indians. Articles “Strengthening the Circle: Interior Indian Affairs Highlights, Bartlett, Donald L., and James B. Steele, “Playing the 2001-2004,” Department of the Interior (undated). Political Slots; How Indian Casino Interests Have Learned The Bush administration sums up its first term’s accom- the Art of Buying Influence in Washington,” Time, Dec. plishments in Indian Country. 23, 2002, p. 52. In a prescient article that preceded the Jack Abramoff lob- Cornell, Stephen, et al., “Seizing the Future: Why Some bying scandal, veteran investigative journalists examine the Native Nations Do and Others Don’t,” Native Nations In- political effects of some tribes’ newfound wealth. stitute, Udall Center for Studies in Public Policy, Uni- versity of Arizona, Harvard Project on American Indian Harden, Blaine, “Walking the Land with Pride Again; A Economic Development, John F. Kennedy School of Gov- Revolution in Indian Country Spawns Wealth and ernment, Harvard University, 2005. Optimism,” The Washington Post, Sept. 19, 2004, p. A1. The authors argue that the key to development lies in a Improved conditions in many sectors of Indian America have tribe’s redefinition of itself from object of government at- spawned a change in outlook, despite remaining hardships. tention to independent power.

382 CQ Researcher The Next Step: Additional Articles from Current Periodicals

Drug Smuggling on Reservations Murr, Andrew, “A New Menace on the Rez,” Newsweek, Sept. 27, 2004, p. 30. Kershaw, Sarah, “Through Indian Lands, Drugs’ Shad- Meth is becoming the drug of choice on Indian reservations owy Trail,” The New York Times, Feb. 19, 2006, p. 1. because drug networks believe there are fewer police. Law-enforcement officials say Indian reservations have be- come a critical link in the drug trade, as criminal organizations Riley, Michael, “A Mexican Drug Gang Infiltrates an have found havens in the wide-open and isolated Indian lands. Alcoholism-Riddled Wyoming Indian Reservation to Sell a New Addiction,” The Denver Post, Nov. 6, 2005, p. A1. Riley, Michael, “Porous Border Stokes a Crucible of Pain The Sinaloan Cowboys came to the Wind River Reservation and Smuggling on Tribal Land,” The Denver Post, June in Wyoming four years ago and have shifted many tribal 6, 2004, p. A1. members’ alcohol addiction to meth. The Tohono O’odham Nation reservation, west of Tucson, has become a major corridor for smuggling drugs from Mexico, pro- Tribal Sovereignty viding easy, fast money to residents who have nothing. Greenhouse, Linda, “Court Upholds Tribal Power It Once Indian Education Denied,” The New York Times, April 20, 2004, p. A12. The Supreme Court ruled that tribes now have the au- Dell’Angela, Tracy, “Dakota Indians Say Kids Trapped in thority to prosecute members of other tribes for crimes com- ‘School-to-Prison’ Pipeline,” Chicago Tribune, Nov. 29, mitted on their reservations. 2005, p. C1. Indian students in South Dakota’s Winner School District Hecox, Walter, and Rebecca Schild, “Western Tribes Re- are punished at disproportionate rates and are leaving the capturing Control Over Their Lives,” The Denver Post, district in large numbers, causing many civil-rights activists June 19, 2005, p. E1. to declare the district is racist in disciplining tribal children. Indian individuals and tribes are increasingly exercising their sovereign authority in areas of culture and language, social Mapes, Lynda V., “Indian Elders Help Write Lessons That and political conditions and the environment, according to Reflect Culture, Spur Reading,” Chicago Tribune, Jan. 6, the Colorado College State of the Rockies Project. 2005, p. 10. Administrators and teachers at Chinook Elementary School The Associated Press, “Gregoire, 2 Tribes Reach Agreement in Auburn, Wash., have used a supplemental curriculum on Tax Collection,” The Seattle Times, Jan. 27, 2006, p. B5. based on content recommended by Indian elders to improve Gov. Christine Gregoire, D-Wash., and two tribes agreed children’s reading scores. that the state will continue to collect gas taxes on the tribes’ reservations despite a recent District Court ruling that it Silverman, Julia, “Indian Teachers Sought,” The Philadel- would infringe on their tribal sovereignty. phia Inquirer, April 2, 2003, p. A8. Universities across the West are starting to recruit and train CITING THE CQ RESEARCHER American Indian teachers and place them at schools with Sample formats for citing these reports in a bibliography large native populations, hoping to lower the high dropout rates and raise test scores. include the ones listed below. Preferred styles and formats vary, so please check with your instructor or professor. Walker, Cheryl, “Charter School Helps Indian Students Suc- ceed,” The San Diego Union-Tribune, July 23, 2005, p. NI6. MLA STYLE Michelle Parada and Mary Ann Donohue founded the All Jost, Kenneth. “Rethinking the Death Penalty.” CQ Researcher Tribe American Indian Charter School to foster an environ- 16 Nov. 2001: 945-68. ment for Indians to gain self-confidence and graduate from high school. APA STYLE Methamphetamine Jost, K. (2001, November 16). Rethinking the death penalty. CQ Researcher, 11, 945-968. McKosato, Harlan, “Reservations Are Targets of Meth, More,” The Santa Fe New Mexican, Feb. 19, 2006, p. F1. CHICAGO STYLE The former host of the nationwide radio show, “Native Jost, Kenneth. “Rethinking the Death Penalty.” CQ Researcher, America Calling,” compares methamphetamine use on reser- November 16, 2001, 945-968. vations to crack cocaine use in the inner city.

Available online: www.cqresearcher.com April 28, 2006 383 In-depth Reports on Issues in the News

Are you writing a paper? Need backup for a debate? Want to become an expert on an issue? For 80 years, students have turned to the CQ Researcher? for in-depth reporting on issues in the news. Reports on a full range of political and social issues are now available. Following is a selection of recent reports:

Civil Liberties Education Health/Safety Social Trends Right to Die, 5/05 Academic Freedom, 10/05 Rising Health Costs, 4/06 Future of Feminism, 4/06 Immigration Reform, 4/05 Intelligent Design, 7/05 Pension Crisis, 2/06 Future of Newspapers, 1/06 Gays on Campus, 10/04 No Child Left Behind, 5/05 Avian Flu Threat, 1/06 Gender and Learning, 5/05 Domestic Violence, 1/06 Terrorism/Defense Crime/Law Disaster Preparedness, 11/05 Port Security, 4/06 Domestic Violence, 1/06 Environment Birth-Control Debate, 6/05 Presidential Power, 2/06 Death Penalty Controversies, 9/05 Nuclear Energy, 3/06 Marijuana Laws, 2/05 Methamphetamines, 7/05 Climate Change, 1/06 Youth Identity Theft, 6/05 Saving the Oceans, 11/05 International Affairs Bullying, 2/05 Marijuana Laws, 2/05 Endangered Species Act, 6/05 Future of European Union, 10/05 Teen Driving, 1/05 Supreme Court’s Future, 1/05 Alternative Energy, 2/05 War in Iraq, 10/05 Athletes and Drugs, 7/04 Upcoming Reports Transgender Issues, 5/5/06 Energy Conservation, 5/19/06 War on Drugs, 6/2/06 Controlling the Internet, 5/12/06 Teen Spending, 5/26/06

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